On Frostytech's test bench today is Phanteks's PH-TC14PE (red) heatsink. This CPU
cooler comes in blue, red, red and white colour variations for those discriminating
enthusiasts who like to colour coordinate their entire PC.

If you've already
read Frostytech's review of the blue PH-TC14PE heatsink (based on averaged results data
from all four colour variations tested), you won't find many differences in this
review. Still, we're posting separate reviews for each colour variation of the
PH-TC14PE so readers can see what the different heatsinks look like. For all
intents and purposes though, our comments are identical. Test data has been
updated to reflect results from the red version of the PH-TC14PE
heatsink.

The Phanteks PH-TC14PE (red)
itself is a pretty standard dual tower, five-8mm-heatpipe-packing heatsink that retails for about $90 bucks.
It stands 168mm tall and has a wide 144x161mm footprint that may have clearance issues
on some motherboards where RAM slots and VRM heatsinks are too tall, too near the CPU socket.
The cooler weighs upwards of
1250 grams and ships with two 140mm PWM fans arranged in a
push-pull configuration (brackets will support 120mm fans). The fans spin at 1200-900RPM and are anywhere from moderately
audible to pretty quiet. On the plus side, the dual-fan set
up does make this heatsink a good lower noise thermal solution, as you'll shortly
see.

The Phanteks PH-TC14PE's five, 8mm diameter copper
heatpipes fan out from a thick nickel-plated copper base plate into two 115mm
tall anodized aluminum cooling towers. Both fans are held in place with easy to
engage/disengage wire fan clips that lock into the sides of the fin stack. The
fans rest against clear elastomer strips to isolate the rest of the heatsink
from minor vibrations and such.

Phanteks' PH-TC14PE (red) heatsink is compatible with Intel
socket 775/1155/1156/1366 and AMD socket AM2/AM3/FM1 processors. More recent
versions were updated to support Intel LGA2011 sockets, but
check the box to be certain. The units we tested did
not include LGA2011 mounting brackets.

The fans
that ship with the Phanteks PH-TC14PE (red) are 140mm in diameter and use a
nine-bladed impeller with three small notches and vertical winglets on each
blade. The manufacturer describes the bearings thusly; "updraft floating balance
bearing". Translation = sleeve bearing. Each fan is rated for 78-60CFM of
airflow, at 1.21mm - 0.69mm H20 air pressure.

The 140mm fans mount with wire clips that lock into
little notches running along the outside edge of each 115mm tall aluminum fin
stack. Unlike heatsinks that use rubber posts to hold their fans in place,
there's no chance of a wire clip failing after years of heating and cooling
cycles.

With an aim towards lowering thermal joint resistance,
the nickel plated copper heatpipes and aluminum fins are soldered together. It's
difficult to say how 'complete' the soldering job between the fins and heatpipes
is... some gaps are visible on close inspection.

Installation Hardware

Phanteks'
PH-TC14PE (red) heatsink is compatible with Intel socket LGA775/1155/1156/1366
and AMD socket AM2/AM3/FM1 processors. The CPU cooler ships with a variety of
brackets, separated into several packages for AMD and Intel processors. For each
CPU socket small metal tabs are first attached to the motherboard, a plate then
mounts over the heatsink base and everything fixed in place with two
spring-tensioned screws.

The
instruction manual makes installation of the nearly 1.3kg heatsink pretty
straightforward. Both fans are installed with clear rubber anti-vibration strips
across the edges of the thin aluminum fins which is a nice touch. A small
syringe of thermal compound and a pair of fan cable adaptors are supplied
too.

FrostyTech's Test Methodologies are outlined in detail here if you care to know what equipment is
used, and the parameters under which the tests are conducted. Now let's move
forward and take a closer look at this heatsink, its acoustic characteristics,
and of course its performance in the thermal tests!